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Peter Crouch
Peter Crouch (born 30 January 1981 in Macclesfield, England) is an English footballer who played for Liverpool from 2005-2008. He left Liverpool in 2008 joining Portsmouth for an initial fee of £9,000,000. Crouch had scored 40 goals in 132 games during his time at Liveprool. Liverpool career Crouch underwent intense media scrutiny due to a goal drought during his first months at Liverpool. For 19 games, spanning four months, he was unable to score. Crouch was praised for other facets of his game, such as his touch on the ball, but his first goal for the club evaded him. The fact that Crouch possessed "good touch for a big man" in fact became something of a media cliché during this time. Early in his Liverpool career the supporters composed a new chant; "He's big, he's red, his feet stick out the bed, Peter Crouch, Peter Crouch." The drought finally ended on 3 December 2005 when he scored against Wigan Athletic. Although this first goal was originally given as an own goal, it was later awarded to Crouch on appeal; he went on to score a second goal in the same game. Prior to these goals, Crouch had played over 24 hours of football for Liverpool without scoring. In addition to this, he also had to deal with unpleasant taunts from crowds at matches, as he had throughout his footballing career, who often chanted "freak" at him due to his unusual height. He went on to score several more goals that season, including the only goal in the fifth round of the FA Cup (2005–06) against Manchester United, Liverpool's first victory over them in the FA Cup post-World War II. On 13 May he helped Liverpool to win the 2006 FA Cup Final against West Ham, providing a crucial assist for Steven Gerrard to score the second Liverpool goal. Three months later, in the curtain-raiser to the 2006-07 season, he headed the winning goal for Liverpool in the club's 2–1 victory over Chelsea in the FA Community Shield. In their 2006/07 UEFA Champions League campaign he scored his first goals in European club competition. On January 13 2007 he scored two goals in an away game against Watford, the first time he had scored twice in an away league game for Liverpool. Crouch sustained a broken nose when playing against Sheffield United in February 2007. Although he played in some subsequent games, on March 9 2007 it was announced that he would undergo surgery on the injury which would keep him out of football for a month. On 31st March 2007 he returned to action after the operation and scored the first hat-trick of his club career, against Arsenal in a 4-1 Liverpool victory. This was also a so-called "Perfect Hat-Trick", consisting of goals scored from his right foot, left foot and head. He later participated in the 2007 UEFA Champions League Final, coming on as a substitute for Javier Mascherano. He ended the 2006-07 season as Liverpool's top goalscorer in all competitions, with 18 Goals. At the start of the 2007-08 season he has had restricted opportunities to play for Liverpool due to the arrival of other strikers, but scored against Toulouse in a Champions League qualifying win in August, his eighth goal in his past ten appearances in that competition, and then also scoring the first and last goals of an 8-0 win over Besiktas in the first round of the Champions League in November. This match is now the highest margin by which a team has won in the Champions League. Honours Liverpool *FA Cup: 1 (2006) *FA Community Shield: 1 (2006) Individual *73 on Liverpool's 100 Players Who Shook The Kop (2006) *73 on Liverpool's 100 Players Who Shook The Kop (2013) Stats External links * Crouch Crouch